Rep. Brett Hildabrand, R-Shawnee, said he believes a Wyandotte County representative may have broken state law by testifying on a gun bill Friday.

Mike Taylor, a lobbyist for the Wyandotte County Unified Government, testified against House Bill 2473, which would bar cities and counties from making certain rules about weapons.

Immediately following Taylor's testimony, Hildabrand said he believed Taylor ran afoul of a law passed last year regarding public entities lobbying on gun issues.

“I’ll be seeking an attorney general opinion on whether the unified government is acting contrary to Kansas law,” Hildabrand told Taylor.

Taylor responded "well, that will be interesting," but after the hearing called Hildabrand's statement "preposterous" and said it was an unseemly attempt by a pro-gun legislator to silence dissension in the Statehouse.

"We're seeing that more and more in this building and I think it's wrong," Taylor said.

Hildabrand said after the hearing he would confer with colleagues before requesting the opinion from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt but "I'm still very interested in finding out what the A.G. says." He later said via Twitter he was only seeking to clarify what's in the law.

The chairman of the House Federal and State Committee where HB 2473 was heard, Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Wichita, reminded Hildabrand that many government officials, including Schmidt himself, testified on the wide-ranging bill.

“Before we go down this road too deep, tread lightly," Brunk warned.

Schmidt submitted written testimony as a "neutral" party and Hildabrand and Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, R-Palco, both said that they believed the law passed last year only barred public money from lobbying in favor of gun control.

Taylor said Hildabrand's interpretation was "off-base."

While the bill as originally proposed banned all public moneys for lobbying in favor of gun control, as passed House Bill 2162 only applied to state dollars and banned their use for "all purposes related to gun control" without specifying for or against.

Taylor said he would not fall under the law because his salary is paid solely through local funds. But, legal technicalities aside, he said it was ironic that Hildabrand would seek to protect the Second Amendment by trampling the First Amendment.

"It's interesting to me that we're talking about Constitutional rights," Taylor said. "I was exercising, on behalf of an entire community, the community's First Amendment rights to speak on a significant issue."

The Legislature has passed several pro-gun rights bills in recent years, including one last year that stated local governments must allow licensed concealed carry in public buildings unless they have significant security measures like metal detectors.

The latest proposal would prohibit local governments from sponsoring gun buyback programs, regulating the "carrying" of firearms through their jurisdictions or regulating the manufacture of knives differently than any other consumer good. It would also allow for expungement of convictions for possessing several types of knives that were legalized last year, allow minors to carry handguns with parental permission and prohibit trial courts from destroying confiscated weapons if such weapons can be used by the Kansas Department of Parks, Wildlife and Tourism for hunter education.

Another provision would compel law enforcement agencies to return confiscated weapons within 30 days unless there are ongoing legal proceedings related to the weapon.

The Kansas League of Municipalities, Kansas Association of Counties and judicial and law enforcement groups all weighed in with concerns about the bill, which Brunk said the committee may vote on Wednesday.

Rep. Jim Howell, R-Derby, was its main proponent, and said he's willing to work with stakeholders to see if they can find some common ground on amendments.

But Howell made it clear he believes gun laws are generally ineffective in preventing crime.

"If somebody's going to be a bad guy, they're going to be a bad guy regardless of the law," Howell said.

Howell, who got frequent advice from Kansas State Rifle Association President Patricia Stoneking who was seated behind him at the hearing, also said the lack of continuity in laws from community to community makes life difficult for gun owners.

"The patchwork of laws is an infringement on our rights," Howell said.

Taylor noted that his office sits five miles from the Missouri border and asked committee members how they feel about the federal government smoothing out the "patchwork" of state laws on guns with regulations that apply nationwide.

He also reminded legislators that cities and towns have been making their own gun regulations since before Kansas was a state, when Wild West sheriffs asked those entering places like Dodge City to check their weapons at the city limits.

“This bill proposes eliminating and changing more than 150 years of practice in the law,” Taylor said.